The present invention relates to a flexible carbon material and a process for producing the same. More specifically, the present invention relates to a flexible carbon material produced by carbonizing a composite material comprising carbon fibers and a binding agent and to a process for producing the flexible carbon material.
In recent years, carbon materials based on carbon fibers have been used in various industrial fields, and while being accompanied by technological progress of and demands, improvements to the productivity and the physical specificities of the carbon materials are still sought.
Carbon materials are generally excellent in physical properties as basic materials, for instance, heat-resistance, corrosion-resistance, electric conductivity, mechanical strength, etc.
Hitherto, research and development relating to carbon materials have been restricted to those areas involving the improvement of the above-mentioned physical properties. Research into carbon materials having greater flexibility have in general not been carried out.
As a result of the present inventors' studies concerning flexible carbon materials, it has been found that carbon material having the flexibility of not more than 200 in the value of the ratio (D/d) of the minimum diameter of curvature (D) of said flexible carbon material just before the breakage thereof at the time of bending said flexible carbon material to the thickness (d) of said flexible carbon material, is available by carbonizing a composite material comprising carbon fibers of not less than 1 mm in average length and a binding agent. Such a finding has never been presumed by the above-mentioned research hitherto carried out, and also has never been intended.
The objective of the present invention is to provide a flexible carbon material having a novel microstructure and a process for producing the same.